Baddesley Clinton visit.

 We did all the locks yesterday so that we could go and visit Baddesley Clinton, a National Trust property about half an hours walk from Kingswood Junction. With all the rain we have had, plus loads more over night we guessed it would be muddy, and so it proved. We took shoes to change into though.

This is the NE aspect of the building. Original the drawbridge was on the SE front. Doors and windows have been moved all over the place over the long history of the building.

This is the interior courtyard looking at the entrance from the bridge. The 7 diamonds flower beds are a representative of the Ferrers family crest, seven diamonds.

Looking to the SW in the interior courtyard.

The house has a lovely feel to it, and could be easily lived in. (now that there is heating installed I'm sure). All the rooms are paneled and the great hall looked really comfortable with a massive stone fire place that had originally be upstairs. There had been some characters living in the house. Henry Ferrers 1549 - 1633 was known as 'The Antiquary' due to his love of history, and when he took over he had the stained glass added to many of the windows that plot the heraldic history of the family. Henry leased the building to two daughters of Lord Vaux and they ardent Roman Catholics. They held masses in the house and hid priests too. One is open for display and had to be entered by a rope down a garderobe! Henry apparently didn't know, but also leased a building to Thomas Percy where Guy Fawkes hid the gunpowder that was to blow up the Houses of Parliament! Apparently he was totally ignorant, or extremely lucky to get away with it all. Or both of course. 

Looking across the moat from the North West.

In the 1860's Marmion Ferres and his young wife Rebecca inherited but had no money. Rebecca's aunt Lady Georgiana Chatterton and her second husband Edward Dering had similar ideas and they moved in to the building. The Quartet as they became known didn't want to move into the 20th Century and dressed and lived their lives as in the past, with no modern conveniences. Rebecca was a good artist and there are many of her pictures around the house. Lady Chatterton was a renowned novelist too. Lady Chatterton died in 1876 and Marmion in 1867 and Rebecca and Edward married about a year later.

When Rebecca died nephews were unable to keep the house going and after flogging most of the contents off the estate was auctioned in 1940. Luckily it was bought by philanthropist Coker Iliffe and then distant relatives of the Ferres family Thomas and Undine Walker. They loved the house and even changed their name to Ferres. It was their son who handed over the house to the National Trust after having to find loads of money to go with it. He partly did this by opening to the public.

Looking at the south western range of the manor house from the orchard.

St. Michael's Church.

The air must be pretty good round here for this lichen to grow so well. It was almost like been in the southern USA! Mind you the roar of the M40 is a constant in this part of the world.

There was no escaping the mud as the ground was saturated. We walked through some horse paddocks and the horses were looking quite miserable in the mud. It makes you wonder if he poached up fields will ever recover.

We got back to the boat, and after a cup of tea we decided to move on a little. We topped up with water as we passed Tom o The Wood. This photo is coming out of the gloomy Rowington Cutting and looking through Bridge 62 to the land beyond the embankment.

The views from the embankment are great and the countryside of rolling hills looks very appealing.

We didn't go too much further as we moored up where we had on the way north, just past Bridge 61. It is a sheltered spot with no trees around. This means that we will get any sun on the solar panels and, with Storm Kathleen coming tomorrow we thought we had best be clear of dropping debris, never mind uprooted trees in this very wet ground. We thought we would see how bad it is as if we have to stay the moorings at the top of the Hatton locks are awful, muddy, gloomy and possibly crowded.

Lost Railways.

 It rained on and off through the night but has stopped by the time we were getting up to a dull and dank day. Mind you we got away at our usual'ish 0930.

Just north of Wimcote is a winding hole and the remains of a railway bridge. Checking is out I find that it was the abutments of an iron bridge that carried a 3ft gauge plateway from quarries across to the towpath side. The quarry was owned by William James who was a backer of the canal being built. He persuaded the builders  to install a plateway to aid construction, and once built bought it to exploit a quarry he had discovered. It had two sorts of Blue Lias. Some was hard enough for building and flooring, and actually is used on the floor for the House of Lords. There was another bed that had soft lias that was ideal for lime and cement. James went bust in 1823 and the business was bought by a Stratford Canal Carrier Richard Greaves. On the towpath side was the cement works and six lime kilns with a siding to to the railway. Coal and other products were brought in by both canal and rail as were the finished poroducts too. Later this was the same company of cement manufacturer as at Stockton.

It seems that the Stockton  cement was ideal for replicating stone, such as in stucco work, where as the cement from Wilmcote had a bit of iron oxide in it but made very good cement for things such as tunnels and sewers where it didn't need to be visually pleasing. The quarry closed in 1908.

1885 OS map extract showing the cement and lime works north of Wilmcote.

The canal is noticeably high this morning and every by-wash running. The local fields are well flooded and the rain certainly hasn't helped the state of the tow path either. Rather than walking between many of the locks Helen has hitched a lift to avoid the worst of it.

These narrow bridge holes remind me of that one on the Trent and Mersey near the water bark outside Burton on Trent. Whilst  seems to be an odd one many of the bridges on this casual are similar. They are often not lined up with the canal either so you have to dodge into them. I wonder if the canal has changed route slightly over the years as it seems unlikely that they would have designed them like that deliberately.

This photo of the Edstone Aqueduct makes it look as short as the Yarningale one a little further up the cut, but it is 754' long and although not the Pontcysyllte it is still impressive at just 28' high.

As thre cloud thinned and the sun strove to make an appearance it was amazing how these old bull rush heads brought splashes of colour to the cut, looking really bright.

More trees! I have realised that we don't have very many large trees were we live so they are noticeable.

The lock cottage near the Yarningale Aqueduct is up for sale. It has just been reduced to a little over £2 milliom. It does have 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms and two utility rooms, plus 3.5 acres of land!

Just north of Lowsonford is another old railway bridges abutments. I was thrown when it did not appear on the 1880's map. After a bit of poking about I found that although a railway had been planned to Henley in Arden, and had started to be constructed, the money ran out when only half of the 3.5 mile line was constructed when abandoned in 1861. In June 1894 the railway line called the Birmingham and Henley In Arden Railway Co. (BaHIARCo) opened to traffic. It left the GWR main line at Rowington. The railway was worked by GWR from the beginning and they officially took it over in 1900.

In 1908 the North Warwickshire Railway was opened that provided a more direct route from Birmingham to Henley in Arden and a new station was built. The old BaHIARCo was converted to the station master's house. In 1914 passenger traffic on the route stopped followed by goods working in 1916. In 1917 the tracks were taken up to be used in France for the War effort, however the ship carrying them was apparently sunk. The ghost of the line can be traced on Google earth.

We carried on upwards meeting plenty of boats coming down at locks, one of whom accused me of not knowing what I was doing! Stranger as we had shared the Stockton locks with 'Uncle Monty'. I'm assuming he was having a bad day. Once at Kingswood Junction we took the shortcut back to the Grand Union and moored up not too far from the junction. Another 18 locks under the belt.

Stratford upon Avon on the cheap.

 We caught the 10:27 train into Stratford upon Avon from Wilmcote station and we arrived 10 mins. later. It is only a further a further 10 mins walk into the middle of town. All for the price of £3-40 for two of us!

We had picked up a leaflet for a self guided walk yesterday and so now we set off with Helen as the tour guide. We started on Henley Street and the home of William Shakespeare. In mid 16th Century John Shakespeare, a glove maker, rented this house, and it was here in 1564 that his son William was born, and the rest is history.

On High Street the black and white building on the right, with then flag pole, was built in 1596 by Thomas Rogers. His daughter Katherine married Robert Harvard of Southwark and their son John, (I'm sure you are well ahead of me now), emigrated to America where her founded Harvard University. The black and white building next door is the Garrick pub. It too was built in 1596 and became a pub, the Reindeer, in early 18th Century. By 1800 it had become known as the Garrick after the famous Shakespearean actor.

Just down the road is the Old Bank that was built in 1883. It is a classy building and has the old style very high banking hall ceiling.

It is adorned with terracotta tiles depicting scenes from Shakespeare's plays.

Across the road is the Town Hall built out of Cotswold Stone in 1767. It replaced a former building that had been badly damaged in the Civil War. The ground floor was originally open for the market but was infilled in 1863. I'm not sure whether the 'God Save The King' is recent, but more likely to be from those days.

This was added to the wall by the kind offices of David Garrick the year after.

Down Church Street is this row of buildings. Nearest the camera is the stone is the Guild Chapel that was begun in 1269. Right next to it is the Guildhall built in 1417 followed by the line of almshouses built in 1502. In between the two is the very small schoolhouse of 1427. The school moved to the upper floor of the Guildhall in 1560's and this is where Shakespeare went to school.

We went into the chapel but didn't linger as they were busy installing new heating, but long enough to snap this wall painting.

At the end of Church Street is Trinity College. It was originally a two story house but was extended to three when it became a school in 1872. It appears very run down now and is flats.

Down Old Town is this house called Hall's Croft. It was once the home of Will Shakespeare's daughter Susannah and her husband Dr. John Hall. It was built in the early 1600's.

This is the 'modern' part of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. It was built after the original theatre burned down in 1926 and was opened in 1961. Not a classic view perhaps. The river was flowing quite fast at the first lock on the Avon Navigation'

What is now Bancroft basin is one of two basins that were built here on what was once common grazing land. It then became a working area on arrival of the canal. This is the Gower Memorial over looking the basin. It was provided by Lord Ronald Gower in 1888 and stood in front of the original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre that burned down. It was moved here in 1933 and has four characters from Shakespeare in the four corners. The one to the left is obviously Falstaff.

The only bit of the original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre to survive is the bit to the left of the picture. It was built in 1879, and when the rest of the building was lost in 1926 this surviving bit was incorporated in the new and is now the Swan Theatre,

Further along Waterside is to be found a line of 19 or 20 lamp post that have been donated form around the country. We couldn't leave without saying hello to the one from Kingston upon Hull (to give our full title as we are in Stratford upon Avon). You can see at the base that it has the three crowns of the Hull emblem.

We have had a lovely day, without getting wet and without spending loads of money in visitor 'experiences'. We visited a few pubs and cafes and so have had a very full day before heading back to the boat. In the end the broken lock beam has saved up half a day and 32 locks! Thanks you C&RT for letting that beam just magically fail on Tuesday. Seriously though they are in a cleft stick as with out adequate funding, and what institution has that, how do they prioritise jobs that appear to need doing? They will never be right all the time will they!

The best laid plans.

We had a quick visit to the Navigation pub, just by the aqueduct but just had one. We set off after a quiet night about 0930.

The aqueduct from the road side.

It just about says it all.

Wooton Wawen Aqueduct over the A3400 in an iron trough and the sunken towpath make it all vert Stratford Canal.

Very soon we come to the Edstone or Bearley Aqueduct, another fine construction that passes over a railway, waterway and a roadway.

It says in our addition of the Pearson's Guide that the towpath is very good on this canal. Our experience is that it is atrocious with much been bog. It is obviously well walked but is in unfit condition to my mind. Not the message that C&RT are putting out about the canals been used by all.


I assume that there are mile markers along the canal but I haven't seen many of them.

There are loads of cowslips out in the hedgerows around here that add a cheerful look to the area.

We got to Odd or Bearley Lock astern of a winding boat with brand new crew aboard. We found out later that they had been married on Sunday and had never been on a narrow boat and were under instruction. There was also a day boat. They both let us past after the lock and we arrived at the top of the 16 locks down into Stratford upon Avon behind a 69' hire boat. They had been told that lock 51 had just been closed due to a rotten beam and they may be able to wind in an unoffical winding hole below the first lock. They couldn't and after a long time they came up backwards and the went astern to Wilmcote to the winding hole there. We decided to do the same, after winding below the lock. It was easy enough for us.

 

We moored up at Wilmcote just after bridge 59 which was the one that they wanted to lower to make a cheap road bridge that would have closed the canal for good. In the end they didn't and we nearly got to Stratford thanks to those fighters.

In thre early years of the 19th Century the Oxford Movement started up to bring Catholism back to the Church of England. It was very high church and the walls are adorned in paintings and these pictures of the scriptures painted on zinc sheets. It is St. Andrews built in 1841 by William Butterfield, a renowned Gothic architect who also built the manse and school next door.

We walked past Mary Arden;s house and farm. Above is said to Mary Arden's House. She was Shakespeare's mum. This is in fact a neighbour's house Adam Palmer. Mary Arden's house was more modest and is behind and is part of a farm complex. Both are now owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. We went back to the boat and as it was so early we decided to catch the train to Stratford.

Wilmcote station is quite cute and unmanned. It looks like the emblem on the cross over bridge is for the Great Western Railway who took over the line. the journey is only about 15 minutes with one stop and for two of us with out railcards cost a princely £3-40.

We were worried that there wouldn't be any room for us at Bancroft Basin when we got there. We needn't have worried as there was nobody there. Maybe next time.

 

April Fool, not!

 We got underway at 09:30. The weather was completely overcast but was still dry. The two hire boats travelling together that had moored up astern of us late yesterday were off about 30 mins before us.

As we approached Rowington the bell ringers at St. Laurence's Church we  giving it a very merry  go on the nice peal of bells. Happy Easter to everybody.

There was very little wind today so could get a nice image of Bridge 62 in the cut.

The cutting that follows the embankment at Rowington made me think of being on the Shropshire Union. When being built the original plans were for a tunnel like Shrewley.

We stopped for water at Turner's Green before carrying on to Kingswood Junction. It has been very quiet all the way and so it was at the junction. We stopped in the cut and moored up so we could drop off the rubbish before heading through the short cut and headed down the Stratford Canal.

Looking from the bridge to the C&RT yard to drop off the rubbish this is the view south towards Stratford. This is our first view of the barrel roofed lock cottages famous on the Stratford.

Helen looking lovely in the sunshine wearing her secret weapon to combat the towpaths at the moment. Wellies!

Once back at the boat Helen set of to ready the lock. To the right is the 'short cut' to the north and Kings Norton, and straight on to the south, missing a lock out.

Helen started doing the lock wheeling and the sun came out for her. We met a few boats coming up, well spaced out, and we were told that there were two boats ahead of us heading down.

I can't remember which lock this was but this National Trust Plaque denotes the part played by them in reopening the canal. The northern section to Kingswood was opened in 1802. The southern section was opened to Stratford in 1816. The southern section didn't do that well as the River Avon was not easily navigated for through traffic. The southern section was all but closed in the 1950's but the National Trust decided to lease it to restore it in 1961. They did so, and set the bar for canal restoration everywhere. They handed it back to British Waterways in 1964.

There used to be an Anthony Gormey Statue of a man over looking this lock at Lowsonford and this barrel roofed cottage is available for holiday rental through the Landmark Trust, £380 for four nights, sleeps four.

We swapped over duties so Helen was driving as we crossed over Yarningale Aqueduct trough. Wren the canal opened it was a wooden structure but following a surge from the Grand Union canal nearby that flooded the canal and the waterway beneath it was washed away in 1834. It was rebuilt the same year in the iron trough provided that well known canal iron works maker, Horseley.

Just a little further on as Helen was bringing 'Holderness' out of the lock she let out a yelp and exclaimed that the Morse control cable (Throttler and clutch control) had snapped. Fortunately the engine was stopped and she could through me a line and tie up on the lock landing below the lock. Once I got the boat tied up I had a look and all connections seemed to be fine. It then became apparent that the grub screw holding the Morse control lever on the spline had come loose so there was no grip. It was then just finding the right size Allen key to do it up again. Not so funny really, but I wish I had thought of it as a April fool prank, at the right time obviously.

We took the opportunity to have a drink and a hot cross bun before heading of to find a berth at Wootton Wawen. We walked to have a pint at the navigation, but were back after a pint and a half of cider. Sausage and mash and onion gravy for tea.

Three brick makers on the lock sides on the way down the Stratford Canal.

Cakemore Brick Co. was started in 1819 in Rowley Regis. It went bust but was later recreated, and in 12883 it started making blue engineering bricks. It later became the Staffordshire Blue Brick Co. It closed in 1925'ish.

Pynson Wilmot Bennitt was making bricks at Littlefield, Oldbury between 1869 and 1891 by when they ceased trading and P. W. Bennitt was living of his own means.

The third brick is stamped Wood & Ivery Co, J. W. Ivery Manager, Albion Brickworks, West Bromwich. The company was started by George Wood who was employing 50 people in 1861. In 1872 he went into partnership with Ivery in 1872 and last heard of in 1904. Quite something to have your name on millions of bricks I should think.